July 21, 2018
Adel Wahner is living the dream.
In the past three months, the Vanderbilt junior-to-be has been a part of her team’s national championship, recognized by bowling’s official academic honor program and earned a position on Junior Team USA. That’s a far cry from the 10-year old who went to her first competitive tournament hoping she wouldn’t finish last.
“My dad (Paul) took me to the Teen Masters in Las Vegas when I was 10,” Adel remembers, “and he told me the goal would be to not finish last. We were going to learn what tournament bowling was about. Back then the Teen Masters put all ages into the same group so I was one of the youngest bowlers there. But I didn’t finish last – I beat five other girls!”
She beat a lot more than five at the Junior Gold Championship that just wrapped up in Dallas. The Junior Gold is probably the premier bowling tournament in the nation; this year’s event attracted 855 young women in the Under-20 category alone. Wahner was seventh heading into the 16-person match play that determines the champion, meaning she finished ahead of 847 of her peers.
Wahner says representing the United States was one of her long-time bowling goals.
“It’s an incredible feeling. I’ve been close to making the team in the past but it just didn’t happen. I would have a bad block that would push me back in the standings. I felt confident all week this time; one of my goals was to be more consistent, trying to have consistent blocks. This week I had one mediocre block but it was still good enough to keep me in the mix.”
She got her USA spot the old fashioned way – she earned it.
“I actually had a rough summer of preparation for this tournament,” Adel admits. “My hometown bowling center (Las Cruces, N.M.) closed down about a month before the Junior Golds so I drove an hour to El Paso every day. I think that was actually a blessing in disguise because I had to invest more time and in doing so I became more determined.”
Wahner, a double major in psychology and Medicine, Health and Society, says that being a part of Vanderbilt’s elite program has provided a major boost.
“I credit college bowling with almost all of my success,” she says. “I’ve learned the importance of a good work ethic. We all saw how that paid off last April (at the NCAA Championship). And this week with so many of my teammates here (six), we supported and helped each other as we could.”
She becomes the eighth Commodore to make Junior Team USA. The others include Josie Earnest, Brittni Hamilton, Jessica Earnest, Samantha Hesley, Robyn Renslow, Amanda Fry and Natalie Goodman.
Wahner said her selection was so recent that she didn’t really know the next agenda steps on Junior Team USA but that there would be an orientation later Saturday night.
That’s perfectly fine with Adel. After all, she’s been waiting since she was 10. What’s a few more hours when you are living the dream?